Well, this is kind of a kerfuffle/mess.
An apparent bug (or series of bugs) found in macOS Big Sur 11.3 and macOS Big Sur 11.3.1 has caused a seemingly random series of website browsing issues in Apple’s Safari 14.1 web browser, alongside other web browsers.
Per user reports on the Apple Support Communities website, the Safari 14.1 update breaks functionality on popular websites like eBay. The issue appears to predominantly affect Safari 14.1 on macOS Catalina and macOS Mojave.
Reports from developers also describe ongoing problems with Safari 14.1. According to Google Chrome developer advocate Jake Archibald, the localStorage system in Safari 14.1 is buggy, and causes tabs with use the same localStorage for text boxes.
Other reports cite that Safari 14.1 for macOS Mojave and macOS Catalina feature problems with the WebAuthN problem. Per Eclectic Light, Apple pulled the Safari 14.1 update for both of those macOS versions on May 1. Other issues have been reported between web browsers such as Firefox and Google Chrome on websites like eBay and others.
As far as potential fixes, there doesn’t appear to be anything surefire. Some users report that disabling JavaScript in Safari preferences seems to resolve some of the issues. The troubleshooting advice given by other users in the Apple Support Forums suggest that a clean reinstall of the operating system solves the problem, although many users have stated that this is not a guaranteed solution.
Apple is apparently aware of the problems and is likely working on a fix, as evidenced by the removal of Safari 14.1 for macOS Mojave and macOS Catalina.
Please let us know if you’ve experienced similar issues on your end and stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via AppleInsider, discussions.apple.com, @jaffathecake, and Eclectic Light